Black Ministers Mark Anniversary of Emancipation Proclamation On New Year’s Day

By John McNamara

The first day of 2024 marked the anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation 161 years ago by President Lincoln. The Proclamation signed at the start of 1863 freed more than 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the secessionist Southern states during the bloodiest year of the Civil War.

New Britain’s Black Ministerial Alliance (BMA) organized the Emancipation service featuring Pastor Brian K. Riley who delivered a New Year’s Day sermon and Pastor Gervais Barger who was recognized as BMA’s Man of the Year. Choirs from Peace Mission and Right Now Ministries participated. Rev. Riley leads Clinton AME Zion Church in Ansonia and remains active in BMA in his native New Britain. Rev. Barger is pastor of Peace Mission Ministries housed within historic South Church where the event was held.

In his remarks Pastor Riley acknowledged and thanked Chief of Police Matt Marino, Deputy Chief Adam Rembisz and other New Britain Police Department (NBPD) officers who attended the service. “I was raised as a cop’s son in this city. Law enforcement and the Gospel are embedded in my soul,” said Riley, a former New Britain Board of Education member long active in Spottswood AME Zion Church before he began his ministry five years ago. Riley’s father, Milton R. Riley, served on the NBPD from 1968 to 2000.

Riley praised Pastor Barger and the BMA for “being in the action” in the community, carrying on the activism of the civil rights movement. He compared Rev. Barger’s and the BMA’s local efforts to the Rev. C.T. Vivian, known as an “organizer and field general for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference”. Calling his sermon “a liberating declaration” Riley said he wanted to be “transparent” in his Emancipation Day sermon. He shared that he and his Ansonia church have been recently subjected to harassment, false accusations and threats on social media.

In confronting evil and what he called “powerless adversaries” against his faith, Riley said he draws strength from the Scriptures and is “definitely stronger” for facing recent adversity. Quoting Romans 8:37 Riley said: “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Observing the Emancipation Proclamation anniversary on January 1 is a New Britain tradition organized by the pastors and member churches of the Black Ministerial Alliance.

Lincoln issued the Proclamation six months before the pivotal Battle of Gettysburg that thwarted the Confederacy’s invasion of the North and resulted in 55,000 casualties. According to the National Archives, fulfillment of Lincoln’s Proclamation was contingent on a Union victory in the war: “Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the nation, it captured the hearts and imagination of millions of Americans and fundamentally transformed the character of the war.

After January 1, 1863, every advance of federal troops expanded the domain of freedom. Moreover, the Proclamation announced the acceptance of Black men into the Union Army and Navy, enabling the liberated to become liberators. By the end of the war, almost 200,000 black soldiers and sailors had fought for the Union and freedom.”

John McNamara is a contributing writer

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